The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

Murray County

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  • Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen Erik Gallman talks with Henrietta McDaniel about the paintings he painted at the Murray County Library Thursday.

    Art at MC library 1 mlh.jpg

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March 4, 2010

Authors, artist shine in Chatsworth

Mark Millican Dalton Daily Citizen

CHATSWORTH — Erik Gallman painted a rendition of the Cohutta Springs Grist Mill and Dance Hall using old photographs and the memories of senior residents in the area. But it was the stories about the old mill in north Murray County that really brought the painting to life.

“The dance hall on the upper floor was accessed by a footbridge,” he said. “Numerous people told me they snuck up there because they weren’t supposed to be going, and someone was said to have gotten drunk and rode a white horse across the footbridge into the dance hall.”

Gallman unveiled 10 of his rustic paintings at the Chatsworth-Murray County Library Thursday afternoon, where eight local history books were also on sale with their authors available for questions and autographs.

Anne Brindle, who penned “Eton: The Past to the Present,” claimed she only put the book together.

“The people who have lived in Eton wrote the book,” she said. “I got stories from the residents — a few still live here, but most have moved away. The oldest person was Annie Laurie Brown Howard, who was born in 1913 but died a couple of years ago.”

In the book, Howard recalled early Eton: “If it was muddy when we walked to school or church, we wore our old shoes and carried our good ones to put on when we got there.”

Betty Bandy said it took her three years to write “Little Murray Memories” about the district in the northwestern section of the county that was once isolated.

“I had a lot of pictures, and old documents like invoices and receipts from the 1800s,” she said. “I have several relatives who lived in the area and I talked to them, too. In the early days the community only had access to the rest of the county by three fords in the Conasauga River. I found that a concrete bridge replaced the first wooden bridge in 1912, but I couldn’t find when the wooden bridge was built.”

Bandy said she had 450 books printed before starting to sell them in January of last year.

“All those were exhausted by August, and I gave about 40 copies away,” she said. “I gave the book to the library and they’ve printed 200 more. All the proceeds will go to the library.”

Residents seemed thrilled with the abundance of local history books and original art.

“I don’t know much about Little Murray, so I will look forward to this,” said Roland Harbin, scanning a copy.

“I think it’s great,” exclaimed Joan Dooley. “As you can see, we have talented authors here. Of course, I’m prejudiced because I live in Eton. Anne Brindle has done a great job putting together our book. I’m also interested in looking at the book about Little Murray.”

Pat Ausmus, director of the library, called Gallman’s paintings “beautiful” and was glad to have them displayed in the new addition.

Other books for sale were “Springplace Memories” by Tim Howard; “Happy Birthday, Chatsworth” by Ausmus; “Crandall” by Emily P. Cogburn; “Murray County Railroads” by Herman McDaniel; and “Murray County Men who Served in the Confederate Army” by Charles Forrest, Bobby Mosteller and Herman McDaniel.

 

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